Pioneering Sustainable Industrial Development for FoodTech in 2025

In today’s age of increasingly advanced technology, our interest in pursuing industrial careers or entrepreneurship has waned. Yet, we still rely on products produced in heavy industries. There is a pressing need for talented individuals to pioneer industrial fields and drive positive change for a sustainable future.

Innovation is a powerful tool for transformation and is often driven by nascent companies striving to combat challenges in vital global systems. In 2020, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Investment and Technology Promotion Office (ITPO) launched its “Global Call” awards event. The UNIDO Global Call recognizes and awards companies with innovative solutions to global challenges and has become UNIDO’s flagship annual event.

Innovators Committed to Driving Positive Change

Since 2020, Global Call has garnered over 2,000 applications from around the globe,creating a network of innovators committed to 'driving positive change through technology and collaboration.UNIDO prioritizes foodtech, and the 'gravity of global food system challenges' prompted Global Call 2024 to adopt the theme 'FOODTECH Innovation and ISID: Nourishing the Future’. The goal of 2024’s food system innovation theme was to identify companies using technology to address critical issues in the global food system and improve societal challenges in the entire food industry value chain.

Relocalize is proud to have won the Director General’s Award – in Category 2, Manufacturing and Processing (Second Prize) in Global Call 2024. The company is honoured to be recognized as a sustainable food supply chain technology leader. This latest accolade follows other industry awards from Progressive Grocer and Food Logistics.

Combining AI, robotics and IoT, Relocalize builds hyperlocal food systems in the form of autonomous micro-factories that can be based at grocery stores or distribution centres to streamline production processes locally. Hyperlocal production cuts out extended food supply chains, creates food system efficiencies, reduces food miles, and minimizes food waste.

Localization is often proposed as a solution for processing fresh and farm produce; however, Relocalize believes relocalization easily goes beyond agricultural production. Hyper-localizing production for heavy products, like ice for example, can make a significant impact when products made from water can travel long distances using trucks.

Global Call 2024 “FOODTECH Innovation and ISID: Nourishing the Future” Winners

Opening ceremony of the UNIDO Global Call 2024 Award Ceremony

The UNIDO 2024 winners received their awards at a ceremony in Seoul, South Korea on November 21, 2024. Relocalize shares its recognition with other deserving and pioneering foodtech companies.

AggregateOne received third prize in the Distribution and Delivery category for its work developing a single platform to connect, digitize and automate perishable supply chains to improve efficiency and collaboration. This startup began on the banks of the Limpopo River and has grown into an international team of fresh produce supply chain experts striving to simplify the fresh produce trade.

AkoFresh, based in Ghana, won first prize in the Distribution and Delivery category for its climate-smart cold storage facility, which minimizes losses for tomato and vegetable farmers. The company is committed to resolving 30% of postharvest losses experienced by smallholder farmers. AkoFresh CEO, Mathias Charles Yabe, declared:

“The 2024 UNIDO Global Call highlighted how technologies like IoT, AI, and robotics can reshape the future of food systems. It’s humbling to know that AkoFresh’s IoT-enabled solar-powered cold storage solution, designed to reduce food waste in rural farms in Ghana is part of this larger movement towards sustainable food systems.”

Sustainable Planet, a UK-based firm, won third place in the Manufacturing and Processing category, which also honored Relocalize. This company specializes in growing plant-based protein without fresh water, revolutionizing the growth of water lentils that can be grown on non-arable land and in saline water. This innovation uses up to 20 times less water than what is required for protein isolates such as soy. Not only did Sustainable Planet win a Global Call award, but it also garnered a share of a $2 million prize to scale-up its business model in the UAE courtesy of the 2022 FoodTech Challenge.

Animal Industry Data Korea (AIDKOREA) won third place in Global Call’s Production category. Its groundbreaking solution, Farmsplan, integrates AI, biotechnology, and veterinary science. It uses CCTV to monitor livestock health 24/7 and provides veterinary health planning. The company aims to prevent disease in livestock and minimize the use of antibiotics and drugs, thus contributing to a healthier supply of livestock-derived products. AIDKOREA’s Farmsplan also won bronze in the Food and Agriculture AI Advancement category of the 2023 Edison Awards. The Edison Awards, named for renowned inventor Thomas Edison, highlight exceptional technological innovation.

The Live Green Co’s DE3PBIO won Global Call 2024’s fourth category, Consumption. This company combines precision fermentation with big database and AI-ML technologies to spur faster and healthier innovation. The Live Green Co’s mission is to help consumer product companies develop cutting-edge products more quickly and cost-effectively than their competitors.

Global awards in foodtech and other industrial and manufacturing fields motivate and inspire graduates, inventors, entrepreneurs, and innovators, breathing life, talent, and new technologies into essential industries—making them more sustainable, healthier for people and the environment, and far more efficient.

Relocalize is proud to celebrate its prestigious awards and those of other new companies fighting to fix prevalent problems in global food systems.

We are building toward a future where the food system is as local and sustainable as possible—a relocalized future. Contact us to learn more about how we make relocalization possible!

Pioneering Sustainable Industrial Development for FoodTech in 2025

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